50HighSchoolStudentsYouNeedtoKnowAbout

Mogul is delighted to announce the "50 High Schoolers You Need to Know About," which highlights fifty phenomenal high school students that should be on your radar. This list in no way covers all the amazing students out there, however, the below individuals are definitely ones to watch!

These moguls in the making have already made their mark in industries ranging from STEM to the nonprofit world, and they are just getting started. The sky is the limit for these young women, and Mogul is thrilled to support them every step of the way.

Zoe is the Co-Founder and Art Director of Glitter Magazine, co-founder of national celeb #SelfLoveCampaign, and Valedictorian nominee for her graduating class. She is cast in NERD POSSE a new pilot, as well as acting in and co-producing a new teen series in development. Not a stranger to the camera from a very young age, Zoe has appeared in Time Out Kids New York, modeled for various campaigns, and partnered with various prominent brands. Zoe has helped shape Glitter’s vision of ethical social media, with its commitment to contributing accurate, positive messaging. Zoe is also a new youth ambassador for Breaking the Chains Foundation, to help fight against eating disorders.

Despite being only 15 years old, Catherine is a rising high school senior. Currently, she is doing number theory research at Emory University on using cyclotomic polynomials to produce infinitely many functions that satisfy the Riemann Hypothesis. An avid Android and iOS app developer, Catherine received a scholarship to Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in 2016 after building an app to help children learn vocabulary. Right now, she is creating a platform that uses machine learning to auto-generate math problems tailored to students' interests and abilities in math. She also co-founded and directed PixelHacks, the Silicon Valley's first all-female high school hack-a-thon.

Alyssa’s list of accomplishments include: witnessing three Space Shuttle launches, attending Space Camp seven times, Space Academy three times, Robotics Academy once, and multiple Sally Ride Camps. She is the youngest to graduate Advanced Space Academy, and she was the first person to attend all three NASA Space Camps in the world. Alyssa is also the first and only person so far to complete the NASA Passport program, visiting all fourteen NASA Visitors Centers stretching across nine states. NASA has invited her to be on the MER 10 panel in Washington DC to discuss future missions to Mars live on NASA TV. In October of 2016, Alyssa was the youngest to be accepted and graduate from the Advanced Possum Academy, officially making her certified to go to space as an astronaut trainee. Alyssa can be seen in the hit Netflix documentary, The Mars Generation.

Liz has found her passion in coding and creating apps that she hopes can one day change the world. She has been coding since she was in elementary school, and has since had many achievements in the field. She was a NCWIT Aspirations for Computing Award National Winner this year, one of 50 out of 3600 girls bestowed this honor. She is currently developing four apps at the same time. On top of this, she has been to many hack-a-thons and awarded at all of them with amazing projects, including one to help people with Alzheimer's.

Noa is the CEO of Nannies by Noa, the company she founded when she was just 12-years-old. Now 17, Noa has appeared on TV shows on NBC, CNBC, Fox Business and the Steve Harvey Show. Her remarkable entrepreneurial journey has been covered by publications and websites. When she isn’t growing Nannies By Noa, Noa attends high school in NYC and is on the board of The Friendship Circle, a mentoring program that pairs teens with special needs kids.

Haile is a certified Integrative nutrition health coach, youth health activist, Jamaican-American motivational speaker, and teen vegan chef. Haile has over four years of experience leading Happy Programs & Initiatives, and is responsible for carrying out the organization's strategic plans, designing curriculum, and working to personally engage, educate, and inspire youth and families to embrace healthy habits.

Alexa has been one of the founding Advisory Board members for Être LLC, a website where teens who love to write can get published. She also built and launched the Teens Writing site to encourage other teens to write and be read. Alexa is a Larger Than Life Child Ambassador, and has raised over $25,000 for the organization that seeks to improve the lives of Israeli children with cancer. Alexa is also the Vice President of her school's Youth Against Cancer club.

Gabby is one of the founding Board Members for Être LLC. Gabby has also been dancing competitively since age four, is a Captain and star tumbler, and has competed both regionally and nationally. Under her leadership, her team has won Nationals on multiple occasions. Additionally, Gabby is a rising track star, being recruited by colleges in her sophomore year of high school. Gabby works Saturday mornings with the Salvation Army feeding the homeless, and runs food drives with Table To Table.

Joie is highly involved in the computer science field. Joie takes programming college-level classes in addition to her work load at her high school. Impressive accomplishments include that she has maintained a 4.0 GPA at both her high school and college, and she has learned various coding programs and networking concepts. With her abilities, she was able to serve as the Director of Technology for the STEM organization at her school. She also founded the CyberPatriot club at her school, exploring the cyber security aspect in technology. She also serves as the president for the Coding Cadet organization whose goal is to provide elementary students with website design literacy.

Akshara Anand is passionate about women's empowerment, STEM education, and computer science. Akshara is the founder of the STEM Innovation program, an innovative education program for teaching students computer science through robotics, career presentations, programming, apps, and creative activities for free. She is the captain of her school's Science Olympiad team, founder and president of the Women in Computer Science Club, and president of her school's peer-mentoring organization, LASA Ambassadors. She also created an after school STEM program curriculum for the Girl's Empowerment Network of Austin. She has proved her capacity to be successful in the professional world as an intern at Givology, creating the Humans of Givology campaign and working on data analytics through Google Adwords.

Kaylee is very hard working and creates opportunities for herself and others. This summer, she landed an internship at Stanford University under the Management Sciences and Engineering department where she will be conducting research with graduate students, professors, and undergraduates. Because of this research, it also led her to a program called Catapult, which is a high school incubator. She was accepted into the program as a Founder and brought her company idea, Jobscopia, to others within the program in which they are starting up. She is also a Girl Scout, and plays an active role in volunteering with her community.

Chloe Kim is an incredible snowboarder, currently sponsored by Target. She was too young to compete in the 2014 Winter Olympics but that did not stop her from finding a way to compete. Chloe entered the 2014 Winter X Games instead and earned silver in superpipe. Since then, she has earned two X Games gold medals. She also made history as the first woman at the Park City Grand Prix to score a perfect 100 for her run.

Olivia, fifteen-year-old environmental artist and activist, was ten years old when she heard about the oil spill in the Gulf Coast. Knowing birds were going to suffer, she decided to give her bird drawings to those who donated to wildlife recovery efforts, eventually raising over $200,000. Olivia has received many accolades for her work, including being named a White House Champion of Change where she got to meet President Obama. Olivia also wrote and illustrated Olivia’s Birds: Saving the Gulf.

Sharon is the founder of StuyHacks, the premier high school hack-a-thon in NYC. She also works as the first high school Coach for Major League Hacking, a White House Champion of Change, an executive director for ProjectCSGIRLS, and as an executive director for BitxBit Camp. She has been to the White House five times, spoken at the UN Secretariat, as well as NYU, MIT, and Yale University. She is the NYC Youth Poet Laureate, a Tribeca Film Institute Fellow, and a winner of the AT&T Film Invitation at the All-American High School Film Festival. Sharon has interned for the US Department of State, Facebook, and several NYC-based startups.

Rachel is the founder of Gladiator Lacrosse, a high-quality sports training equipment line. At fifteen, as a straight-A high school student, athlete, CEO, and dedicated family member, Rachel has maintained a profitable company without ever compromising the brand’s fundamental intent or consumer promise. As a sophomore in high school, she has recently been named to the All District Team and to the All Region Team in her area, and as a member to Florida’s National Lacrosse team.

Maya is a co-designer, artist, philanthropist, activist, entrepreneur, animated filmmaker, coder, illustrator, writer and author. She started her own company called Maya's Ideas, which works to create and provide environmentally sustainable, fashionable accessories and clothing. She has been featured on various publications and has given three Ted Talks. She has also partnered with Google to speak to girls about coding and computer science.

Kehkashan was born and raised in the United Arab Emirates. She is the founder of a youth organization, the Green Hope Foundation. She is an environmental and social activist whose main objective is to involve and mobilize youth in the movement for a sustainable and green future around the world. Additionally, she is a Climate Justice Ambassador for Plant-for-the-Planet. She was awarded one of the Climate Heroines of 2014 by the UK Youth Climate Coalition. She is also the Youth Ambassador for World Future Council and the winner of the 2016 International Children's Peace Prize.

Most recently, Maia won the top prize in Marvel Studio’s Girls Reforming the Future Challenge, a contest encouraging girls to submit projects that have “the potential to benefit humankind.” Her winning project was a seeing-eye robot that helps the visually impaired. The tool, inexpensive to make, uses ultrasonic sensors to produce a beeping noise any time an obstacle appears nearby. Maia hopes her invention can give those who are impaired another option for guidance.

Madeline is profoundly compassionate and committed to social justice for all. She believes all people should always be treated with respect, equality, and compassion. She has devoted her energy during high school to social justice issues. She is a highly active member of several after school clubs including GSTA, Civil Rights, Intersectional Feminism, and an Environmental Group. Most recently, Madeline and her closest friends in the GSTA wanted their high school to raise a Pride Flag. Through enormous efforts, the flag was raised. History was made, as this was the first Pride flag raised at any school in the state of Maine.

Anjali is the Founder of School for a Village, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that brings technology and educational resources to students across the world. Actively involved in scientific research, she has pursued independent laboratory research projects in the fieldsof psychology, genetics and allergy/immunology, and currently leads a DNA Research Club at her school in collaboration with Rutgers University. She has been recognized for her work as a Siemens Competition Semifinalist, NJ Tech Council Internet of ThingsConference speaker, and New Jersey Winner of the NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Award. Additionally, Anjali is an avid Bharatanatyam dancer and tennis player.

21. Bailey Jones

New York, New York

As an adoptee whose humble beginnings were in an orphanage in China, Bailey was diagnosed with a hearing disorder at a young age. This caused her to be extremely focused, with a strong sense of empathy for her fellow students and the community around her. She is involved with The Robin Hood Foundation, which supports programs surrounding poverty and social justice, and won a $5000 grant for a group project done on behalf of the Innocence Project. She has worked with inner city kids who needed academic support via The Go Project, and embarked on a summer research internship at NYU. At school, she is a peer tutor and editor of the literary magazine, while juggling a full schedule of AP courses.

Lyla designed her first toy monster at age 3. Two years later, the family started selling Lyla's charming creatures—plush toys made to help kids ease their bedtime fears at local craft fairs and then online. Lyla remains the creative force behind the company. She also has become a skilled spokesperson, writing and delivering her own speech for the Chicago Toy & Game Fair, where she received the Young Inventor of the Year Award in 2014.

*Note: We were recently informed Lyla is a Middle School student. However, we are delighted to highlight her on this list.

Vanessa is a 2017 US Presidential Scholar who is looking to fill in the gaps in the existing macroeconomic theories. Vanessa has already finished intermediate-level economics coursework at Harvard and will be entering her freshman year at Yale with 28 college credits. Outside of academics, Vanessa is a socially-conscious entrepreneur who has founded a math tutoring program for her local chapter of Just for Girls Academy, a non-profit K-6 all-girls school, and has mentored over 20 girls, inspiring them to consider professions in STEM.

Miracle's life mission is one of service and social change. Miracle's ability to initiate and be a mentor started while in middle school. When her family could no longer afford to keep the children in a private school, Miracle attended public middle school. Here was where she experienced typical middle school harassment, and she decided to begin a blog to help young girls through this difficult phase of life. She started this blog at age thirteen and has had over 6,000 hits.

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Lauren is completing her last year of high school achieving honor roll status for the fourth consecutive year. This year, Lauren was elected by the school administration to be vice-president of the DECA school team. She was also selected by her school to compete in the University of Toronto Future Leaders Challenge, a business competition for high school and university students. While Lauren completed her academic studies, she also worked hard to make a competitive volleyball team. This year, Lauren was recognized with the Most Valuable Player award. Lauren also has an artistic side, and received the Royal Academy of Dance Advanced Foundation certificate.

Isabella created a brand that gives girls cosmetic products they would like but that also has a great message behind it. She has range of products that are naturally formulated to be safe and effective, whilst also making girls feel great because they are taking care of their skin. The range is all about encouraging girls to develop healthy lifestyle habits and routines so that they learn to take care of their skin and bodies as they grow -- all while having fun.

Bhavana participates in many activities yet still maintains her status as class valedictorian. She started a debate team at her school last August where she is an all-star, and she also excels in speech and student government. She has attended the HERlead Leadership Forum and serves in state and national leadership positions for nonprofits and political groups. She founded an organization called Four Corners, an entirely youth-led organization that focuses on mentoring low-income children and helping them develop their literacy and communication skills.

28. Leila Eliot

New York, New York

Instead of focusing on student government, Leila focuses on bigger picture government. Leila represents fellow citizens of the East Village, the Lower East Side and Chinatown in debates about land use, landmarks and liquor licensing (Lower East Side's Community Board 3). She was appointed to a two-year term on the 50-member board in January, and she interned for two years with City Council member Rosie Mendez.

Briana is the CEO and founder of coderGirls, an international organization that can instruct and motivate young girls to code. Since the beginning, she has implemented chapters and curriculum with 85 Girl Scout councils and over 350 schools to impact over 500,000 girls. Briana partnered coderGirls with the National Girl Scouts of America to create a coding badge for coderGirls courses and to potentially impact 2.7 million girls. Part of the reason for coderGirls success is not only because of the instruction and kinship, but because Briana has a strong passion to help others.

Rachel Ji is an internationally-acclaimed young entrepreneur. Her company Youthxco is aimed to empower youth by spreading positivity, as well as donating a portion of profits to organizations which further support youth. At seventeen, she has been featured in The Huffington Post, Success Magazine and various national publications. She has spoken in front of hundreds of entrepreneurs at the New Zealand Entrepreneur’s Festival on her mission to impact and inspire others. Recently, she was chosen as one of three students from New Zealand to go on a sponsored trip to San Francisco as part of the Young Enterprise Trust.

At seventeen, Arden has already helped get legislation passed that directly impacts local teens. Last year, she testified in front of City Council supporting a bill to increase access to sexual education in city public schools. She also volunteers for the American Civil Liberties Union and with NY2X, a youth-led activist group focusing on food justice and economic inequality.

Joyce holds the title of CEO and founder of Wild Daisy. Wilddaisy.com is an online store selling a variety of different items, such as clothing, accessories and shoes. During the day, Joyce attends high school, taking a variety of AP classes and enjoying life as a teenager. However, after school, she goes to her office and warehouse to sort out packing, shipments, emails, appointments and everything that comes with being a CEO.

Kelly is the founder of an international online magazine dedicated to highlighting other teen activists. She has been majoring in art for over four years and uses art to promote political activism and adolescence. Kelly is working on publishing a book, a YouTube channel, and a podcast this summer. Kelly is the President of the LaGuardia High School Hub on Mogul.

Akshaya is an aspiring entrepreneur and app developer. She has built software to help deaf kids learn sign language, diagnose ADHD more efficiently, and help depression patients track their emotions. However, as a young woman in computer science, she noticed a huge gender disparity in the field and started a national nonprofit called Girls Make Apps to close the gender gap in tech. When she isn't busy writing code, she is teaching girls to code and organizing large scale diversity events across the country.

35. Ashia Ruth Kelly

Hempstead, New York

Ashia devotes time every week to helping with a community food pantry. She was recognized for her volunteer service by the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless at their annual “Vigil for the Homeless.” She is also establishing a nonprofit organization that will provide feminine apparel and hygiene products to girls and women in need. In addition, her organization will provide back to school clothing to families who are suffering from financial hardship.

Natasha is working on an original, non-fiction book that explores why young girls turn away from STEM careers. She has interviewed over a dozen successful women from Google, Twitter, Microsoft and others, and plans to publish the book in the fall of 2017. Natasha’s also hard at work creating a non-profit, Girls With Dreams, to correct the gender gap in STEM. She plans to educate and inspire many young girls in elementary and middle schools by providing information to pursue coding and STEM activities. Natasha is a lead publications editor for Pudiyador, a non-profit organization that provides enrichment programs to young girls in Southern India.

37. Cayla Copeland

Boca Raton, Florida

Cayla currently attends an extensive dual-enrollment school where she will be able to earn her Bachelor’s degree along with her high school diploma. Her current goals are to pursue a degree in Environmental Science with a possible double major in Math. In addition to excelling academically, she has been a part of the prestigious Girl Choir of South Florida for over seven years, and was invited to join their high school Concert Choir. Cayla volunteers for several charitable organizations, including the Humane Society of Broward County.

38. Natalie Castro

Vaughan, Canada

Natalie is the pride and joy of the Ecuadorian community in Canada, and she sets an example for other young women in both the Latino and Anglo communities. In June 2017, she graduated from high school with honors. Most recently, Natalie got accepted to Berkeley with a full scholarship.

Phoebe has volunteered for 100 hours at the Placentia library and is a devoted member to the Placentia Teen Advisory Club. She also volunteers for charities such as the Children's Hospital of Orange County. She is passionate about moving women forward in their careers and stopping discrimination based on gender and color.

40. Alexandra So

Danbury, Connecticut

Alexandra is working to become a neurosurgeon when she grows up. She is a part of a prestigious internship run by MIT. She loves to be creative and make DIY items like such as balms, scrubs, and cleaners, as well as bath balls. She is planning to start a small business on her DIY items and become an early entrepreneur selling things via e-commerce. She is in the process of launching a Youtube channel.

41. Nandini Lakshminarayanan

Troy, Michigan

Nandini has a passion for helping others and has received many awards for her community involvement. She has worked with her School Leadership team to setup a water bottle drive to help the Flint, Michigan residents during the recent water crisis. She has also tutored at-risk students in the Detroit Public School System. She recently visited India in June 2017 and took off from her vacation to spend time with middle school children from a less fortunate school, run by the Government, teaching them life skills and helping them with their curriculum. She is currently focused on addressing some of the needs of the school, and is planning to collect funds for the institution.

Samantha is one of the founding board members of a girls' empowerment group called Être. In the past, Samantha has volunteered with local New York organizations like Neighbors Link to help serve hundreds of immigrants relocating to the area. Samantha has helped in the Family Center and the ESL Program, teaching children while their parents attend evening classes. As a creative, Samantha will soon be directing short plays in the Family Center to be performed for the Family Center parents. Samantha's outstanding Spanish fluency has led her to double her volunteer time in the ESL area, all while in her sophomore year of high school.

Sydney is not only a motivated straight-A student, but she also works hard outside of school in her job, sports, and leadership roles. When she was a freshman, she taught herself fluent Spanish and conversational Italian, as well as started a blog to help others learn languages efficiently. She used that Spanish experience as a bilingual volunteer where she tutored at a local help center. In addition, she has started a career online as a freelance writer. She is also a member of her school's Global Leadership Council, a group tasked with helping international students get integrated into the school and have a strong social life.

Sumana is currently developing an app to prevent drunk driving and potentially save lives; the app is set to be released in late October of 2017. She is coding the entire app herself. In addition, she is planning on starting her own 3D printing company this year which will 3D print CT Scans and MRIs so that doctors can plan and practice their surgeries beforehand on an accurate model of their patient.

Betsy is the Co-Founder of GraphR Applications, an education technology company she started in her sophomore year of high school. The company created a patent pending, anti-cheating graphing calculator app to make both digital classrooms and STEM courses more accessible to lower income students. She raised nearly $20,000 worth of capital to pay for software development and legal costs, and was part of the first team of high schoolers to pitch a business at START Houston, a local startup incubator.

Katalina is an extremely thoughtful and hardworking individual. At her high school, she has participated in two service events dedicated to improving communities outside of her own. For one of the service projects, she helped with an organization located on the border of Texas which provided immigrants with free help and services. She is currently interning at the Stuart Foundation, an organization which provides grants for organizations dedicated to improving the education and life outcome of children.

Hallie has been an ally and advocate for social justice for multiple years. Hallie has longtime been spreading her views in some of the most inspirational ways through becoming a published writer. Her goal is to pursue a career in journalism. Hallie is the President of the Sauquoit High School Hub on Mogul.

Emily is changing the way business and entrepreneurship is being taught. She has taken the initiative to get a course for entrepreneurship added at her school. In addition, she wrote a full year of curriculum and lesson plans for the course.

Sofia is on her way to stardom as a talented actor. She recently competed against seventy-four other high school students from across the US at the prestigious Jimmy Awards, which celebrates the top rising stars in theatre. This year, she won the National High School Musical Theatre Award for Best Performance by an Actress for her performance as Woman 1 in Songs for a New World.

Cassandra is an environmentalist and is determined to stop the rising problem of climate change due to human consumption of fossil fuels. She and a team of classmates came up with a solution called Project TGIF – Turn Grease Into Fuel. So far, they have partnered with businesses, big and small, to develop ways to properly reuse and recycle grease.

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I have lots of "what ifs". Mainly because it's symptomatic of my mental condition I've thought about and considered most junctures in my life in the sense of "What if I opened door A rather than B." but for the most part I've concluded that if I didn't go that way and become alienated from the kind of environment and rules I grew up in, I wouldn't have been allowed to be my freest self.

Some of my "What ifs" include:

> What if I never left home at 13?> What if I never met or got with my first boyfriend?> What if I never left school before I did any exams?> What if I never left my first boyfriend at 18 and moved into a hostel?> What if I never lost my first job?> What if I never tried to take my own life?

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I would avoid talking to negative people about love issues if you want to hear positive or neutral words, since ultimately you know that the sentiments they will provide will be negative! Unless that's what you want to hear. Over time, I've learned that everyone thinks they have good intentions, but if they generally express themselves negatively, then that is what you are going to hear and will have to accept -- so best to avoid it if you don't want this!